Work at the 3D processes and Casting workshops
As part of my Studio Practice, I have been wanting to develop my skills in sculpture: to design one or more 3D pieces and then cast them so that I can make copies that I can modify or exhibit.
Because of the kind of pieces that I have been developing during the two terms that my studio practice has been going on for, I hadn’t had the chance to use these workshops so I thought that I might be able to produce some work using the means available in them.
I decided to start working with different materials, such as rubber, wire and plasticine, which I had already used before, to produce the small 3D pieces that I would later produce copies of. During the Easter break I had already started working with rubber to make some of these pieces and I came across a rather quick way of modeling 3D pieces using pieces of rubber and masking tape. This method would allow me to produce pieces in a very intuitive way, using the qualities of the material.
At one point, I decided to treat these 3D works as drawings, maybe sketches that would allow me to evaluate the shapes and the volumes within them.
Because of the kind of pieces that I have been developing during the two terms that my studio practice has been going on for, I hadn’t had the chance to use these workshops so I thought that I might be able to produce some work using the means available in them.
I decided to start working with different materials, such as rubber, wire and plasticine, which I had already used before, to produce the small 3D pieces that I would later produce copies of. During the Easter break I had already started working with rubber to make some of these pieces and I came across a rather quick way of modeling 3D pieces using pieces of rubber and masking tape. This method would allow me to produce pieces in a very intuitive way, using the qualities of the material.
At one point, I decided to treat these 3D works as drawings, maybe sketches that would allow me to evaluate the shapes and the volumes within them.
I developed two pieces that I was intending to 3D scan and then print in a smaller scale to work further on with the files, the sandpaper and maybe by adding material to them, using plasticine, with the idea of possibly casting them in the future or simply scanning them again to then print a full size version in parts that could be casted. Unfortunately this idea didn’t work. On one hand the figures that I had created were larger than the largest object that the 3D scanner would be able to scan and the fact that the rubber that I had used was slightly reflective also made them unsuitable for the scanning machine, which saw something that looked completely different to what I had created.
I didn’t let this frustrate me. I took the sculpture with the most symmetrical shape to the casting workshop and I agreed with Gareth that I would come around after the 3rd year students had finished setting up their degree show to work on making a mould of the piece.
I was away from university for a couple of days as I was feeling quite ill but once I was feeling a bit better I headed to the casting workshop to work with Gareth on the mould of the rubber piece. He advised me to make a rubber mould which was more complicated than I thought. We worked for the entire day and managed to go through several of the stages in the process but I have yet to finish the piece.
I was away from university for a couple of days as I was feeling quite ill but once I was feeling a bit better I headed to the casting workshop to work with Gareth on the mould of the rubber piece. He advised me to make a rubber mould which was more complicated than I thought. We worked for the entire day and managed to go through several of the stages in the process but I have yet to finish the piece.
I also began to develop some other pieces using the 3D printer. I first went into the 3D processes workshop with the idea of starting to work on a piece based on the bust of Mussolini by Renato Bertelli (1933). My idea originally was to make a life size head from plastic, with a continuous profile, modelled on my own, that I would then connect to other pieces that would look like a body (I thought about using crockery for this) and it would all be connected by a pole.
One of the first things that I learnt in this workshop was that trying to print such a big piece would require me to do it in several parts that I would then have to glue, as the 3D printers that we have are not terribly big. It would also take me a large amount of time. Following Sonny’s advice, I decided to downscale the piece and I ended up making a head the size of an apple, with an empty core which would allow me to locate a light inside it. Later I realised that if I was going to use crockery to develop the body of the figure, this size would be much more convenient too.
One of the first things that I learnt in this workshop was that trying to print such a big piece would require me to do it in several parts that I would then have to glue, as the 3D printers that we have are not terribly big. It would also take me a large amount of time. Following Sonny’s advice, I decided to downscale the piece and I ended up making a head the size of an apple, with an empty core which would allow me to locate a light inside it. Later I realised that if I was going to use crockery to develop the body of the figure, this size would be much more convenient too.
We printed it in a pink plastic, as this was the only colour that Sonny had left at this time of the year and I finished it up at home. In order for the printer to take as short a time as possible to print the head, we chose the quickest of the printing methods offered by the machine, which ended up making quite a lot of mistakes that I smoothed out with a file and a set of wet & dry sanding sponges.
I found the process that we followed, with the computer and then the 3D printer, quite interesting and started thinking about giving the software a further go to aid myself in the design of sculptures like the ones I had in my mind. By the end of the week I had downloaded and had been playing with the 3D drawing software that we use in Sonny’s workshop. I must admit that I found it fascinating and I ended up getting addicted to it! I managed to design two 3D objects, one of which I am intending to print (there was a problem on the design of the other one and it was not such an interesting piece that it would be worth taking the time to sort the problem out). It was the end of the week and Sonny was very busy helping the 3rd year CAP and ceramics students setting up their degree show for me to be able to engage with him so I will wait until he is free again to print the piece. I plan to continue working on these two projects until the workshops at Sion Hill close for the summer. |